Jose Mourinho insists it is wrong to judge Tottenham’s “big boss” Daniel Levy on trophies.
Spurs chairman Levy celebrates 20 years at the club on Thursday but, despite overseeing huge progress including a new £1billion stadium, has only delivered one piece of silverware during his tenure with the League Cup in 2008.
But Mourinho says he is determined to deliver another trophy this season and, in typical fashion, the Special One also turned it back to himself by wanting to celebrate 1,000 games in management with a trophy.
Tottenham boss Mourinho, who is on course to reach the milestone next month, said: “I don’t think it’s fair to judge just on the trophies but the trophies are the salt and pepper or football and I would love – not just for him but for the players and the fans and for every one – to help that to happen.
“I’m not a big guy on stats but my 1,000th official match is going to arrive this season too for a career where I’ve been lucky enough to win so many things and it would be also nice for him to celebrate my 1,000 official matches winning a trophy for Tottenham.
“We are going to try. Let’s see if it’s possible. I would love to be part of a work that can deliver a trophy. I would love that.
“I don’t think sometimes it’s fair for an owner, CEO, administrator, a president of a club to be judged on trophies because trophies many, many times depend on others, too.
“There are many ways to look at work in football and the work done in this club independent of the trophies that the club didn’t get in the past years, the work is undeniable.
“The club is a big club, big, big club in many aspects. Very, very well organised in many aspects. And that’s an incredible work from him as the big boss in here and the whole structure that works for him.”
Mourinho is on 988 games and, if they continue their run, then the Carabao Cup final could be game 999 while they also have the Europa League to aim for.
One of Levy’s biggest ever decisions - having immediately replaced George Graham when he took over in 2001 because he was a former Arsenal manager - was to replace Mauricio Pochettino with Mourinho in 2019 and that was done to deliver silverware.
In fairness to Levy, few clubs have been hit as hard as Tottenham by the pandemic because of the financial implications of trying to pay off a new stadium with no fans and having to cancel major events at White Hart Lane.
They are on the right road but Mourinho will ultimately be judged on trophies whether or not his chairman is. They face Dynamo Zagreb in the Europa League in a tie which looks very winnable and Mourinho says he will make changes ahead of Sunday’s North London derby.
Davinson Sanchez is set to start and the Colombia defender has admitted his mixed emotions at not having to report up for international duty after FIFA postponed the South America World Cup qualifiers this month because of coronavirus safety concerns.
Sanchez said: “After it’s going to maybe be a problem because my feeling is like we’re not going to have enough time to play all the matches, but of course we want to be open and try to finish the qualification and see who is going to the next World Cup.”
